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XYZ da Vinci 3D Printers help MOTAT look to the future

Announcement posted by Comworth 16 Dec 2014

The introduction of a 3D printer just in time for the third term school holidays has proven a winner for Auckland’s Museum of Transport and Technology. Supplied and supported by OfficeMax, the new XYZ Da Vinci 1.0 printer has been integrated into the Museum’s existing printing display and provides visitors with insight into the rapidly developing world of 3D printing, and an opportunity to see them in action.

The Museum of Technology and Transport (MOTAT) is the largest of its kind in New Zealand. It offers a fun and exciting learning experience for visitors of all ages. With its core vision to ‘use New Zealand’s heritage, kiwi ingenuity, transport, technology and associated stories in a creative and interactive way to educate and inspire the innovators of tomorrow’, the 3D printer is a welcome addition, confirms Andrew McCartney, Experience Concept Developer at MOTAT.

“The real value in 3D printers is that they are an important new technology which is in its early stages of awareness. That makes it very exciting to show to people; it is a technology that has the potential to revolutionise our business and personal lives,” he says.

With extensive displays of transport and technology over its 40 acres of ground, McCartney says the XYZ Da Vinci has been a welcome addition to the print display section; “This demonstrates early machines, all the way from hand powered letter printers to some of the later mechanical printing presses,” he notes. With a laugh, McCartney agrees that the addition of the 3D printer is something akin to the ‘Evolution of Man’ chart.

“3D is a natural and quite remarkable progression of printing technology – and as a museum of technology, we couldn’t wait to get one on display,” he adds.

Straight into action

Among the ground-breaking features of the XYZ Da Vinci are its low cost and ease of use. With the machine delivered just before the 3rd term school holidays, it took very little time to get it set up and operational in time for the rush of young visitors, confirms McCartney. “We started with a 3D printing experience to demonstrate the machine to the public.

Subsequently, for the school children, we’ve embarked on a demonstration of how the additive manufacturing principle works. The kids get modelling clay and roll out sausages to make coil pots – that’s a good way of explaining the concept and the technique which is applied, obviously in a far more refined way, as the XYZ prints models.”

Perhaps the highlight to date was the incorporation of the 3D printer into MOTAT’s ‘Invention Nation’ holiday exhibit. Aimed at stimulating interest in New Zealand inventors, and inventors in general, McCartney says Invention Nation aimed to open children’s minds to the possibilities of ingenuity.

“The 3D printer was an important part of that; invention isn’t just something that happens in a lab, but everyday people invent things all the time. With technology like the 3D printer now readily available to experiment and test different things, inventors today have amazing tools to help turn vision into reality.”

Instant fascination

Museums are typically places where imaginations run wild and wonder is found around every corner. That made the XYZ Da Vinci an ideal addition to the exhibitions, agrees McCartney. “People are fascinated by it. Children will sit for half an hour watching it going around and around…and to be honest, it’s drawn very much the same reaction from our staff members. There’s always a lot of interest when we take the finished models out. It’s even quite a therapeutic thing to watch the printer at work,” he says.

With the machine already a big hit in the two months it’s been at MOTAT, McCartney says there are plenty of plans for the future. “We’ve got a number of ideas in the pipeline, particularly in terms of ways to get people to interact more directly with 3D printing. Certainly, it is something that we will be using on an ongoing basis, demonstrating and exploring the cool things that can be done with 3D printing.”

But perhaps the most amazing thing about the XYZ Da Vinci remains its price, he adds. “This is one of the most common questions we get asked – and people are consistently astounded that they can get a machine like this for their own homes [for under $1000],” McCartney concludes.